Whenever I meet a new client who has back pain the very first thing I am looking for is what caused their pain. Over 95% of back pain problems are caused from poor movement, lack of movement, and repetitive behaviours that cause irritation of nerves and the discs in the lower back. Some cases are from catastrophic injuries like car accidents or a collision in sports but these are very rare. The majority of these injuries are due to the way we live our life. If you can identify the underlying root cause of your problem you are halfway towards finding the answers to your problem. The big question is where you do you look?

Where Do You Look For Causes Of Back Pain?

I usually start by looking for repetitive movements that repeatedly force the spine into flexion, extension, or rotation. These could be occupational movements, sporting movements, or simple daily activities. It could even be "lack of movement" that is the problem! This does not mean these activities are "bad" as such, it just means the way your body moves in these movements may have something faulty that needs to be addressed. 

The most important thing to understand is that the healthiest position for the spine to function and where it is in its least stressed position from compressive forces and allows for fluid, efficient movement is NEUTRAL.

In Dr Stuart McGill’s book “Low Back Disorders” they tested several positions of the spine to determine if this was true and his conclusion was neutral was the safest position. The worst position was extreme flexion.

This neutral position is what you should be aiming to achieve with most daily movements to build a strong and healthy spine. This is even more important when we exercise or complete an activity that forces load onto our spine as the compressive forces on the discs and joints is amplified. Your posture and movement strategies determine the load and stress on your joints. The closer you are to a neutral posture, the less stress on your joints and the healthier your body will be.

In addition to compression is shearing forces, which is more accurately described as instability. This is when joints move excessively and begin to create friction and rub against cartilage and other soft tissue causing pain and inflammation. This leads to joint stiffness in an attempt to protect the joint from further damage. Once again finding a way to hold the joints in neutral is the solution for this.

Common culprits of back pain are:

• Sitting poorly
• Sitting too long and too often
• Sitting cross legged
• Sleeping position
• Bending poorly
• Unilateral sports or occupations
• Exercise techniques
• Yoga & Pilates workouts with excessive flexion
• Cycling or rowing

Watch the video below to see a detailed explanation of where you may need to look using several visual examples.

While there are a ton of other things you will need to do in order to get rid of your back problem, finding the leak in the pipe is a big start. Hardly anyone is ever told this information when they visit a therapist or trainer to help with their problem as they immediately go to finding exercises, stretches, and remedies to get rid of the pain. Getting rid of the pain is one thing, getting rid of the original problem is another ball game altogether and is where the secret to long lasting success is to be found.

Dr Stuart McGill arguably the world's leading researcher on back pain likes to refer to finding the cause as stopping the person from "picking the scab".

We all know what happens when you cut your finger. Blood pours out from the wound and the body instantly clots the blood to form a scab to stop you bleeding out. Over the coming days and weeks you need to keep the wound protected to prevent it from opening up and bleeding again. If you were to continually pick this scab every day you would cause serious inflammation and eventually infect the wound. The body needs you to avoid aggravating the cut to heal itself. Back injuries are very much the same thing, you have to stop aggravating the area for it to heal itself.

In this case the aggravation could be how you sit down, how you sleep, your lack of movement, or maybe your sport or occupation. Anything that moves the lumbar spine out of neutral repeatedly is where you look and try to change this activity.

Other great articles to read with additional information to help you here are shown below.

• How much spinal compression is caused by sitting
• Lessons I learned from Dr Stuart McGill about back pain
• Bulging disc treatment starts with how you move

Do You Need More Help?

Before you attempt to complete any exercises shown in this article make sure you have seen a qualified Health professional for an accurate diagnosis and assessment of your condition. I cannot stress this enough as self diagnosing can potentially lead to more problems. We often refer out to Doctors, Chiropractors and Physiotherapists before implementing our program. Being certain on where to start is crucial to the success of the program.

If you have seen a health professional and are now looking at implementing a series of exercises and stretches this article will provide you with many great ideas on how to do this. As many people struggle to implement this into a gradual progression I created a detailed step by step program called Back Pain Secrets that includes a 85 page Ebook and 90 minute video with exercises, stretches, mobilizations and in an easy to follow format. This can be done at home or in the gym and we cover everything about your condition in great detail from eliminating the cause to best strength exercises, even nutrition to speed up the healing process! For more information you can watch a quick trailer video of what is included. 

Click here or on the image below to get a copy.

For more ideas and information on specific topics I may not have covered in detail be sure to check out our INDEX PAGE on the website that has over 200 of our best articles. These are all sorted into categories for quick reference so you can find what you are after more easily.

If you do need specific help with your exercise program please feel free to reach out to me for help and we can set you up with your individualised program. International readers can request a Zoom call.

About The Author

Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 16 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specializes in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.

References:

• Functional Anatomy of the Pelvis and the Sacroiliac Joint - By John Gibbons
• The Vital Glutes - By John Gibbons
• Movement - By Gray Cook
• Corrective Exercise Solutions - by Evan Osar
• Back Pain Mechanic - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Diagnosis & Treatment Of Movement Impairment Syndromes - By Shirley Sahrman
• Low Back Disorders - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Core Stability - by Peak Performance
• Anatomy Trains - by Thomas Meyers
• Motor Learning and Performance - By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
• Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance - By Vladimir Janda
• How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy by Paul Chek
• Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course - By Paul Chek
• Advanced Program Design - By Paul Chek
• Twist Conditioning Sports Strength - By Peter Twist
• Twist Conditioning Sports Movement - By Peter Twist